“…you will need to remind yourself that as Christian authors, we are mediators between God’s help and man’s hurt.” ~ Ethel Herr, An Introduction to Christian Writing

In The Making of a Writer, Sherwood Eliot Wirt quotes Thomas de Quincey’s three categories of writing:

*the literature of irrelevance
*the literature of knowledge
*the literature of power

Most of us agree that our bookstores are bulging with the literature of irrelevance. We also have a good deal of the ‘literature of knowledge’ which teaches and appeals to the mind. “But the literature of power is not just cognitive, it is causal; its function is to move,” Wirt explains. What we write “has to do things to people, to motivate them.”

Martin Luther said, “Oh, it is a living, creative, active, mighty thing, this faith!” And we should look at great Christian writing much the same way, Wirt tells us. While our writing may be beautiful, entertaining, and/or rich in style, it is also the literature of power.

Sherwood Wirt’s little book was published nearly 20 years ago, but his words are just as true today. “A true professional learns both from his peers and his competitors.” The difference between great literature as the world recognizes it and great Christian literature, has nothing to do with religious phrases or mere descriptive writing, but writing that motivates and pierces the heart with truth.

Maybe, to borrow from Kipling, we should write in such a way as to walk with the commoners, yet not lose the kingly touch.

But please, one more quote from Sherwood Wirt’s book:

“Remember this: God did commit to us the saving message of the gospel. We are not religious hacks trying to milk the public with a special brand of esoteric teaching. We may be vessels of mud, but we are commissioned to carry the divine treasure. That commission is what makes us servants of truth and stewards of the mysteries of grace. At the very least it ought to make us readable writers.”